‘Trinity River Plays’ too long and winding

When a play passes the three-hour mark, you expect it to be monumental in artistic scope or to make a truly profound statement about personal relationships or society at large. Alas, the Chicago premiere of Regina Taylor’s muddled “The Trinity River Plays” at the Goodman Theatre doesn’t justify its drawn-out running time.

Despite some very good performances and a top-notch production design of a suburban house, there’s a meandering quality and lack of focus to the interlinking trilogy of one-act dramas that comprise “The Trinity River Plays.” And that’s even with emotionally shattering events ranging from sexual abuse to a mother’s death from ovarian cancer.

“The Trinity River Plays” focuses on Iris (Karen Aldridge), who starts off as a bright 17-year-old suburban Dallas teenager who has designs on becoming a writer in the first play “Jar Fly” (a colloquial name for the cicadas that emerge from the ground every 17 years).

The following two plays, “Rain” and “Ghoststory,” jump ahead respectively 17 and 18 years to show Iris, now a famous and newly divorced author in a creative rut, returning home to care for and eventually mourn her cancer-stricken mother, Rose (Penny Johnson Jerald). Despite the 17-year time shift, the cicadas are only mentioned again once in passing, and their metaphorical meaning to the trilogy becomes ponderous.

Feeling like a so-so TV domestic drama, “The Trinity River Plays” is filled with far too many inconsequential daily life scenes (ranging from arguments over shoplifting to gardening) while skimping on major conflicts. It’s also oddly structured at key dramatic moments. For example, when Iris confronts her aunt and cousin about sexual abuse by her late uncle, she jarringly interrupts the hysterics by delivering a calm and reflective monologue.

Another script error Taylor makes is to keep Rose absent from “Jar Fly” (aside from her silent time-traveling spirit who sits on a branch of the onstage pecan tree). The bond between Rose and Iris is only talked about and not dramatically depicted until a third of the way through. This gives the audience less of an incentive to care about the play’s central mother-daughter relationship.

If Taylor’s overarching dramatic writing is disappointingly obtuse, at least she provides some individual scenes for the acting company to shine under Ethan McSweeney’s capable direction.

Aldridge does well as the heroine Iris, showing her bright curiosity even when she’s saddled with unconvincing nostalgic moments where she frequently asks others to sing or recite snatches of poetry to spur childhood memories. Jerald plays mother Rose as an all-knowing pillar of strength, which makes us only wish that Taylor had written in other aspects of her noble character.

Christiana Clark practically steals every scene she’s in as cousin Jasmine, going from a vibrantly defiant 19-year-old aspiring dancer/choreographer to a substance-abusing freeloader who is constantly asking relatives for money. And Jacqueline Williams knows how to milk the laughs from Aunt Daisy’s many references to prescription medication.

Jefferson A. Russell is appropriately pompous as Iris’ ex-husband, Frank in “Ghoststory.” Yet in the role of Uncle Ray Earl in “Jar Fly,” Russell doesn’t get to drop any major clues about his character’s dark side (which give the first play’s conclusion a “blink and you missed it” quality). And in the underwritten role of the good-looking basketball star Jack, Samuel Ray Gates does very well considering how little stage time he has.

If Taylor was aiming for the epic in “The Trinity River Plays,” then she ultimately fails in this unsatisfying and drawn-out domestic drama. Taylor should know that if you want to lure audiences into the theater, the writing needs to rise above what is regularly on offer back home on TV.